Daylight Saving Time

Spring is on the horizon, which means warmer days, MLB opening day and Daylight Saving Time – often incorrectly referred to as Daylight Savings Time. While some Americans dread this day because of the negative effect it plays on sleep schedules, others look forward to having an additional hour of daylight.

What is Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time, also abbreviated as DST, is a practice in the United States that is centered around making better use of the day’s light by moving one hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Every year on the second Sunday in March, the majority of Americans (Arizona and Hawaii excluded) reset their clocks to “spring forward” one hour and therefore gain an extra hour of daylight.
So, at 2 a.m. local time, people should adjust their house, car and bedside clocks to 3 a.m.
Fast forward to the first Sunday in November, and we “fall back” an hour. In doing so, sunrise and sunset will be one hour earlier, meaning more sunlight in the morning. We refer to this as Standard Time, Normal Time or Winter Time.

Will Daylight Saving Effect My Solar Lamp?

Yes, and for the better too. With Daylight Saving Time we receive longer days and shorter nights. With the additional sunlight this should give your solar lamp extra charging time, resulting in longer duration. If you do not notice any effect on the duration, try wiping the solar panel off with a damp cloth or repositioning the solar light slightly.

Interesting Facts About Daylight Saving Time

Daylight Saving Time was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 as slightly a joke to criticize the lazy habits of the French. Daylight Saving Time is, in fact, credited to a bug collector named George Vernon Hudson in the 19th- century who was frustrated in the summertime by how the early sunset interfered with his work. You can learn more about Mr. Hudson here.

Germany was the first country to adopt Daylight Saving Time during WWI to preserve coal. Other surrounding countries shortly after followed suit.

According to a 2015 Brookings article, during DST robbery rates for the entire day fall an average of 7 percent, with a much larger 27 percent drop during the evening hour that gained some extra sunlight.

Daylight Saving Time begins and ends at 2 a.m. rather than midnight because there is a higher chance that most people are sleeping